From the author of The Carolina Slade Mystery Series and editor of FundsforWriters.com.
Writing can be such a sweet life, once we decide to make it so.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

To Market, to Market, Twitter-dee-dee

The New York Times declared 2010 to be the year of the hashtag. I have to admit I was late boarding that train, so 2011 was my hashtag year. But yes, I am Hope, and I'm a Twitter addict.

Twitter is my social media of choice. It's quick. It's more on the targets I follow than Facebook. Because it's brief, there's little fluff, and what fluff there is can be easily skipped. It's like a stream of bullets instead of skimming through blogs hunting for the one-liners that make sense.

Twitter saves and uses my time, and I like to think that it does more of the first than the second.

Yet many people are afraid of it or feel it isn't informative enough. If they've ever wanted to keep up with a ballgame, follow a particular author, get to know agents or locate markets/contests, they are missing a phenomenal opportunity. Especially since you can control who you follow. Especially since you can create a trend in the matter of a day.

How I use Twitter

1. To follow agents.
They are the gatekeepers these days. They talk about changes in the industry. They laugh about what they don't like and praise what they do. They talk about each other. Every once in a while, one will talk about exactly what she/he wants to see in a pitch. They tell you how a conference is going and whether it's any good. They give me a better comfort level for traditional publishing. (@greyhausagency @JanetKGrant @RachelleGardner @literaticat @BostonBookGirl @DanielLiterary @jennybent)

2. To find calls for submissions.
Magazines, contests, even editors (@WorkmanPub @otherpress @graywolfpress @GrandCentralPub @gothamwriters @thewritermag ) will post their needs of the moment, especially if a deadline is coming up. Have a particular magazine you'd love to snare? Follow it. Reply to its tweets. Some have been so daring as to pitch and land a gig with tweets, but you have to be savvy at pitching in 140 characters or less. Some agents and magazines provide Twitter-only contests.

4. To follow authors.
The famous provide insight into their world, travels, even hopes and goals. Twitter gives you an additional layer to these folk. (@joe_hill @jamesscottbell @maryalicemunroe @vickihinze @MJRose @Jenna_Blum @MargaretAtwood @neilhimself) The up-and-coming authors educate you by demonstrating their marketing prowess. (@JodyHedlund @SarahMMcCoy @thebirdsisters ) I've learned so much from these people. I also connected with other authors publishing via Belle Books, my publishing house, and we've discussed meeting and even co-promoting since so many of us are in the Southern US.(@kimberlydbrock @JMcCannWriter)

5. To follow book reviewers and bookstores.
Not only do I want to see what they like, but I want to see if I can add them to my list to review my book in the future. (@jennsbookshelf @bookladysblog @BethFishreads @justonemorepage )

6. To follow events.
If I cannot make a conference or even online class, I can usually find a hashtag that does it for me. In using a hashtag I can follow comments from those who are in attendance. They often quote speakers and reply on whether they enjoy or dislike the event or orator. Helps me decide whether to attend in the future. (#MLA12 #bookexpo #BKBF11 #ala11 )

Some like Ian Greenleigh (@be3d) suggest that every book have an official hashtag to help spread the word. I'm all over that! When we have the title ironed out on my suspense novel (due out from Bell Bridge Books in February 2012), you'll be the first to know that hashtag, and we'll send it all over the world!

Don't let it overwhelm you. Start slow. Go to www.twitter.com and sign up. Click on a few names to follow, using the search mechanism, and there you go. Before long you are tweeting, and learning, and staying ahead of the game.

Well said, Hope! I finally got on Twitter because a friend kept hounding me (in a nice way) by sending me posted article. All the while she kept telling me how much she learned from Twitter and how she thought I'd like it too. I ignored her months. Finally the light bulb came on and I waded into the Twitter waters.

I love Twitter. I've never been a Facebook person (in fact, cancelled my account). Twitter is, like you say, quick and less time is wasted. You can follow whom you want and skip the rest.

I think some people don't want to get involved with Twitter because they think it's going to be one more thing to gobble up their time like FB or e-mail. It is totally different than I thought it would be, and I'm glad my friend encouraged me to take the plunge.

Thanks for the post. I'm going to forward the article to some non-believers.

Thanks, Hope. Perfect timing here too, was just thinking about this earlier today. Was on Twitter a while back and got off, for a number of reasons. Didn't see the potential at the time, but I can see possibilities now.

Hope, Twitter is awesome. Everyday I get adds from fellow writers and sometimes comments from those whom I've never met before. Wonderful way to social network. I just need to learn all those hashtags. There are too many!

Thank you, Hope. I tweet but in a lame way - I haven't quite figured it out as I should but this will help. You're the first writer that I've read who has told me WHY to tweet rather than how to.Jan Morrison

Carolina Slade Mystery Series

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If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hope is founder of FundsforWriters.com. Find her clips in Writer's Digest, The Writer, and other trade magazines. Alma Mater is Clemson University which gives her an eerie love for all things orange. Her newest release is Palmetto Poison, released by Bell Bridge Books in February 2014. Lowcountry Bribe is the first in the Carolina Slade series. Tidewater Murder is the second. Available at Amazon, B&N and www.bellbridgebooks.com

Hope speaks to writers groups all over the country regarding earning a living as a writer, mystery writing, and her favorite subject, The Shy Writer. She lives on the banks of Lake Murray in SC.